BANAUE, Ifugao -- Education Department undersecretary Alain Del Pascua said a P2-billion fund is allotted for the preservation of heritage school buildings dubbed as the “Gabaldon Project” of the department.
The Department of Education (DepEd) has mapped at least 7,000 gabaldon structures used as schools all over the Philippines which dates back to as far as the early 1907, enduing time and in need of measures of preservation.
Pascua said a team from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, National Museum and the National Historical Commission is with the DepEd in the project, lending technical expertise in preservation and rehabilitation of gabaldon structures.
The undersecretary said DepEd has a data base of heritage structures compiled and validated by five teams comprised of architects, engineers and documentors going around the country.
A mapping of all gabaldon structures is being done to assess which can still be preserved and will be finished by the end of the year.
He said these structures will be rehabilitated and rebuilt on the basis of preservation and adaptive use, assessing the P2 billion can fund at least five hundred structures.
There are heritage gabaldon structures in the Cordillera specifically in Tinoc and Kiangan in Ifugao and Baguio City, citing interesting side stories to these identified structures, the DepEd official added.
Pascua said feedback from the validating team said the Tinoc school took six years to build in the 1940’s as materials were hard to transport to the site.
The school also served as a garrison after the 1945 war where comfort women were said to be stationed.
The Kiangan school structure is also known as the site where Yamashita surrendered.
Pascua said the stories will also be compiled and documented and preserved to add to the rich history of each structure.